A pro boxer at a Brooklyn boxing gym is changing the game for youth in neighborhoods plagued by gun violence.

Frank Galarza, the point person for the LUTA (Fight for Peace) program at Starrett City Boxing Club in Brooklyn, is determined to get the program going after the recent death of a 14-year-old in the Bronx, Shaaliver Douse. Douse was armed and firing at a group of men when he was fatally shot by cops.

Galarza is an ideal mentor for kids who may be slipping into drugs, violence and crime: He was once one of those kids.

Galarza’s father “was involved in the wrong things,” and died when Galarza was 7 years old of complications from a gunshot wound. His mother died just two years later from a drug overdose.